Asiad workers case
Also called: PUDR v. Union of India (1982) · Topic: Fundamental Rights and Constitutional Remedies · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 2 "Rights in the Indian Constitution"
Meaning
The Asiad workers case is PUDR v. Union of India (1982), a public interest case brought by the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) for workers building facilities for the 1982 Asian Games (Asiad) in Delhi. The workers were being paid less than the minimum wage. The Supreme Court held that paying less than the minimum wage amounts to forced labour, which Article 23 bans. This widened the meaning of forced labour beyond physical force to include pressure from hunger and poverty.
Example
Because of this judgment, a contractor who pays construction workers below the legal minimum wage is not only breaking labour law. The contractor is also violating a fundamental right that binds private persons.
Don't confuse with
- Bonded labour: work forced out of a debtor until a debt is repaid, for example in brick kilns (Bandhua Mukti Morcha, 1984). The Asiad case concerned low wages, not debt.
Related concepts
- Right against exploitation
- Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour
- Begar
- Bonded labour
- Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976
- Prohibition of child labour
- Right to education
- 86th Constitutional Amendment Act 2002
- Unni Krishnan case
- Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009